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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Does John McCain Understand The Granite State?

Jennifer Donahue sure thinks so. Today, the senior adviser at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, penned a Boston Globe op-ed piece that examines the possibility of a New Hampshire comeback for the Arizona Senator.

Discussing the 2008 race, Donahue drew a parallel between McCain, Gore ('00) and Kerry ('04) when she wrote that "What McCain has in common this year with Gore and Kerry is that the press anointed all three as front-runners before the campaign began."

She also argues that independents have increased in the Granite State, thus McCain still has a shot at winning. She writes "Meanwhile, independents, McCain's bread and butter in the 2000 race, have increased from 33 percent then to over 40 percent now. In New Hampshire, such undeclared voters can take either party's ballot."

Cosmo's Two Cents: McCain's two problems are that his GOP rivals, especially Rudy and Romney are often visiting NH and heavily investing in Republican grassroots, also the conventional wisdom is that New Hampshire independents will be voting in the Democratic primary. Neither of these points are discussed by Donahue. Then again, I could be completely wrong.